The United Nations Resident Coordinator for Namibia, Hopolang Phororo, says poor alignment between employment programmes and the absence of shared systems to measure impact are limiting Namibia’s efforts to tackle unemployment.
Phororo said that while government, the private sector and development partners have introduced various programmes aimed at addressing unemployment, concerns remain over whether these initiatives are producing results at the scale required.
She argued that the challenge is no longer a lack of ideas, but rather how existing initiatives are coordinated, monitored and expanded.
“A central constraint is the absence of a coordinated view of the employment landscape. Despite the number of initiatives in place, there is limited shared tracking of outcomes, limited visibility on what is working, and insufficient alignment to ensure that efforts complement rather than duplicate one another. As a result, promising initiatives are not consistently scaled or replicated, and the collective impact remains below its potential,” she said.
Phororo said Namibia must place greater focus on helping small and medium enterprises grow into stable long-term employers rather than simply increasing the number of start-ups.
She warned that recent policy developments, including the expansion of free tertiary education, have added urgency to the employment challenge.
While the policy is expected to strengthen Namibia’s human capital, she said it will also increase the number of graduates entering the labour market each year.
Without stronger economic growth and improved job absorption capacity, Namibia risks producing growing numbers of educated but unemployed young people, she warned.
According to Phororo, sustainable job creation will depend not only on launching new initiatives but also on building an economy where SMEs can survive, expand and create employment at scale.
“At the same time, Namibia’s employment story cannot be told without recognising the role of micro and small enterprises. Across the country, thousands of such businesses sustain livelihoods every day, often outside the formal policy spotlight. Yet many do not survive beyond the first few years,” Phororo said.
Her remarks come as Namibia targets the creation of 500,000 jobs by 2030, while youth unemployment stood at around 44% in 2023, according to the Namibia Statistics
